Game Day: National Games with Duck Implications

#1 Alabama at #19 South Carolina

12:30 p.m. kickoff. Spurrier continues to try to motivate his players with criticism and public humiliation, particularly his quarterback. At number three the Ducks are a couple of skipped heartbeats from the national championship game, but the Tide looks relentless. Their one possible weakness is a youngish secondary but they keep improving, and they are loaded and intimidating everywhere else.

Oregon fans' best hope for an upset is a sluggish SEC game with a trick play or two along the way from Spurrier. It could happen. And Duck eggs could fly out of my nesting area.

Indiana at #2 Ohio State

The Buckeyes didn't look particularly impressive at Illinois, but they should handle IU pretty easily. The Hoosiers run the pistol that seems to give most teams trouble the first time they face it. Indiana is 3-1, taking a page out of Kansas State coach Bill Snyder's old playbook, scheduling Towson, Western Kentucky and Akron to start the year. It seems to have worked, because they played Michigan and Denard Robinson tough last week, losing 42-35 on a 42-yard touchdown pass from the Heisman favorite with 17 seconds to play.

#17 Michigan at #18 Michigan State

Two 5-0 Cinderella stories in the Big 10, with both teams in this storied rivalry at 5-0 going in. If Robinson keeps producing the way he is the frontrunner for the Heisman and should win it--he's a sensational highlight machine who wins games on his own with his arm and his feet, but Michigan will face multiple tests as the Big Ten season progresses, beginning with this one, then #15 Iowa next week, Wisconsin and Ohio State to end the year. Robinson will have several national tv chances to back up the hype or fall by the wayside. If he stays healthy and goes 9-2 or better they should probably give him the trophy. He and Pryor might have one of those epic showdowns with stiff arm implications, but Pryor has a hugely better supporting cast and deserves far less credit, especially since he is far less consistently amazing than the Wolverine star.

LaMichael James deserves to be in the conversation and deserves a trip to New York, but he'd need a 12-0 Oregon finish and 2,000 yards to win it, and the Oregon attack is too diversified for that to be likely. A running back's at a huge disadvantage, particularly in this company. The four other leading candidates (Robinson, Pryor, Moore, Martinez) have the ball every play, and won't face defenses massed to stop them. Chip Kelly won't campaign or alter the emphasis to promote LMJ, and he shouldn't. The Ducks and their fabulous tailback will stand on their body of work.

Automatic Play-Nobody Division:

#4 Boise State at Toledo
Wyoming at #5 TCU

Sure, the Ducks have a breather this week at Washington State, but these two play opponents like this for seven straight weeks.